Elvarg can't Even

Before leaving for years, I'd completed every freequest save one: Dragon Slayer!

In many ways, Dragon Slayer is the final f2p quest: you wander close to the Wilderness, specifically Edgeville, to start. Your journey will take you to the Adventurer's Guild (where you must have lots of quest points to enter), across towards Rimmington, up onto the Ice Mountain, down into dwarf mines, back to Lumbridge, over to Port Sarim (maybe more than once), slide back to Draynor, and maybe even into the Wilderness for planks and nails lying around. Given that this travel was done without benefit of the Lodestone network, so hopefully one had a Magic skill high enough to speed this journey along.

Speaking of skills, you will need crafting to make an unfired bowl, high enough magic to telekinesis part of a map away from a prisoner, maybe sufficient cooking or fishing to provide healing rations, and a good mix of combat skills to get through lesser demons, skeletons and moss giants before you even reach Elvarg.

Returning to Runescape of the present, my completed quest list looked much different than I remembered. Since coming back, I'd helped druids, mages, barbarians, and Ashdale colonists. Oddly enough, I'd done Rune Mysteries and Gunnar's Ground before, but I could get credit for doing them again.

Now other quests I'd done before were gone - slaying the vampire in Draynor Manor, helping Doric set up his smithy, rescuing Ernest from being a chicken, helping the goblin generals pick a colour for their armour, repair the Shield of Arrav, infiltrate the Phoenix Gang, rescue Prince Ali, and thwart the Black Knights by invading their fortress. Good times, and it's sad to see them gone. What's funny is I can still talk to the drunk doctor in the Blue Moon Tavern about slaughtering the vampire, or chat with the people around Draynor Manor about saving Ernest. Like ghosts in the virtual machine, I keep finding reminders of past exploits. Those quests might not have advanced skills and maybe that's what players prefer, which explains the change. Nonetheless, I love the stories in the quests, not just the fights and rewards.

Disirregardless, the time had come to finish this quest - if nothing else, I needed the bank space taken up by various and sundry items to placate everyone from obscure oracles to ersatz captains. So with a full complement of adamant armor, potion buffs, a rune mace, anti-dragon breath shield, swordfish and willow logs for the bonfire HP boost. Heading to Sarim with the last few tidbits packed away, we set sail and, in an epic cut scene, draw the ire (and fire) of Elvarg of Crandor!

Shipwrecked, I leave Captain Ned and the Cabin Boy and venture up the volcano. Most monsters ignore me, but the moss giants definitely don't like me. But I like the adamant ore I can get without interference from other miners, so even before finding the wyrm's hoard, I've got some treasure. The lesser demons at the crest of the volcano ignore me too, despite being more powerful than the moss giants. Spelunking inside the caldera, again monsters ignore me, except the skeletons, which fall quickly to my crushing mace. And then I find Elvarg. I've only gone through one swordfish so far, which gives me a great feeling of confidence!

Charging in, I get hit for a few blasts, losing about 1K HP before closing into melee range. And then, trading blows, I quickly puul ahead in the war of health attrition. One swordfish later, I'm victorious, pulling off Elvarg's head and stuffing the trophy into my backpack.

Stopping for a quick selfie next to an unfortunate adventurer, I wander along the passage to find myself under another volcano, this time the familiar one on Karamja. Rather than pay for a boat trip, I magically jaunt back to the mainland. (Another erstwhile quest feature: you can buy Karamjan Rum, but you can't just bring it back to Gielinor proper.) One last discussion about being heroic, and I can buy and wear rune plate. (Well, at least I can buy the breastplate for 65K gold. Every other piece of armour must be looted, traded, smithed or bought on GE.)

So I'm going to power through the other quests - if slaying a dragon was this straightforward, then what can be so hard about the other quests?
(Cue music suitable for doomed fools.)

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Learning to Count

Okay, I've taken a couple days off to revisit what I'm doing with this blog. Honestly, nobody came here to read play-by-play of me spending hours roaming Gielinor. And really, that's not what I want to write either. So I guess we've both been disappointed by the initial posts.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going for here, but I wanted to discuss Runescape, focusing on what's changed, improved, appeared & disappeared in the last four years. Being easily distracted, I'll probably muse about gaming in general, maybe fantasy, fiction, RPGs & who know what else. And maybe a few posts will be about the sharp learning curve of returning to the game after so long that I'm really a noob but have too much progress and experience to access various tutorials.

One tidbit I've learned is that I've been under-reporting my accumulated XP. The number that I thought was my current XP total was really a tally that could be reset to zero. So it's like I was reporting a car's total mileage based on the trip counter. It must have reset once I started playing recently, since I don't remember this feature from years ago. Additionally, I've found out how to reset the XP tracker, so I can report my progress between posts.

First, this image shows the XP number I'm talking about that confused me. You can find it one the top of the screen, towards the right near but not immediately next to the minimap.

To access the XP tracker, go into Settings by clicking on the gear at the bottom right.

The gear icon will bring up the Settings menu. You'll want the Interface settings.

If you select the top Game settings instead, the box opens to the Gameplay tab, which is where you can deselect the UTC clock and get the timer out of your inventory. Just choose the Interface tab shown below and you'll be where you belong.

Disirregardless, you should be at the Interface tab now, shown below. Along the right is a box showing skill icons. At the bottom of that is the reset option. Clicking that will bring up the usual "Are you sure? (Y/N)" dialog box, so click 'yes' if you're sure.

You can also track individual skills by selecting the specific skill icon and the tabs at the top of the skill box. Personally I haven't played with those options, but if you want to know how much Fishing XP you've gotten on a trip to Karamja or any other limited measurement, this box is where you'd set that up.

Anyhow, I've learned from this exercise that Runescape has grown in complexity in the last few years. Do I need all these new bells and whistles? Maybe, maybe not, but I can use the counter to report XP gains between blog posts, I guess. But if I find any new stuff I use a lot, then I will certainly pass on useful hints.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Urning my Pay

Starting at 2:28 PM, because I'm still in a mood to craft, and I have an actual target: mining urns. Clay is much easier to work with now that you can get water directly from a faucet or fountain to soften the clay. No more lugging jugs of water

So heading south from Falador, I just realized I don't have a brown apron. I know a chef's hat is still required for the cooking tower. Too late, I wander over to the door.

It opens! Huzzah! So now I get some clay, then soften, shape and bake it. Viola, more urns.

I head over to Taverly to bank them. And I meet an herbalist who needs help. Now I'm questing to gather life water, stone scales and wandering leaves. Got them, so what does this do?

One cutscene later, some vines grow on the altar, the druids seem happy, and I've got a bunch of grimy guam and newt eyes. So now back through the wall into Falador.

Except the gate doesn't go to Falador. It's the stretch of land west of Falador, with the Zamorak church. Two bots (37awfu561459 and A Runner) are taking the Zammy wine as soon as it appears. *sigh* Some things haven't changed in the years I've been gone.

I thinks that's an emissary symbol on the minimap. Yes, a goblin is an emissary. Murknose, Emissary of Bandos. Never hear of him.

Okay, Bandos is the Big High War God. Murknose is his emi...mish...he'll tell you about Bandos. Turns out Bandos believes in might through right, survival of the strongest. He led a strong goblin army against the followers of Armadyl, who also raised an army. An army stronger than Bandos' army, so Bandos lost and died. Which proved that Bandos' beliefs were correct and true. Only a goblin could follow that kind of logic.

So another emissary! Didn't even think about the goblins. It's good they have a god, even if the god turns out to be dead. Go figure.

Anyhow, I'm gonna cabbage-port back to Falador and mine some more before quitting. And that's a dead highwayman. And I swear that's another emissary symbol next to the farm.

It's Taw'Paak, the Emissary of Armadyl. I know he's good at killing goblin gods. What else is on his CV? He's for justice and peace, but will fight to preserve the greater good. Bandos wouldn't compromise and so was destroyed. This god sounds a bit like the Doctor - willing to work with anyone in the universe, but not really big on second chances. I think I could do well here.

Anyhow, I got a book of gods for joining Armadyl. (Sorry, Saradomin, you didn't have an avian as an emissary.) The book lists seven gods and the Godless faction. I guess Guthix isn't a choice right now.

Okay, forget mining. I'll get some yew logs and call it a day for now. Then I get to the bank, trade in noted guam for actual guam. And cleaning those leaves gets me to level 4 herblore (yay) and total levels of 900 (big Yay!).

That seems like a great stopping point. So by 4:02 PM, I've looted 4 gold pieces and my current XP has climbed to 992,698! Almost a million!

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Pleasant Valley Sunday

Today is going to be a lazy day of exploration. Starting out at 7:33 AM to just stroll across Gielinor. (At least I hope it's a lazy day. The last random stroll I took brought me into Wildy to see where rune ore lived and eventually my lack of attention and caution got me killed.)

I have two goals in mind - first, to change my look, and second, to find religion.

Being an established character created by a legacy character generator, my clothes need updating. Talking to Thessalia, I currently have a retro plain top and retro turn-ups.  I don't plan on being out of costume or armour much, but I think it would be nice to spice up my default appearance.

Lots of interesting choices, but many of them too busy with collars or straps or ruffles or whatever.  I like the waxed tunic in pale cream dwogre. The cross stitching there matches with the retro turn-ups, although I change the color of my pants to sooted brown. I accept the changes, and Thessalia tells me I look great. Go me!

Now about finding religion, I ran into a priest of Zamorak the other day in Edgeville. Used to be Zamorak, at least in f2p, was a source of expensive wine but nothing else. Now he(?) can be followed, although after the mess he left behind Lumbridge castle, I don't know who would,  But if he's around, I'm sure Saradomin and Guthix must have disciples out there too, so I'm going to track them down. Provided, of course, they're somewhere within the freeplay area - would Jagex make members-only deities?

Anyhow, the best place to start is the beginning, so I port back to Lumbridge to start looking for new NPCs. (I know, there are a LOT of new NPCs, like civic-pride-local-cape lady, but I shall persevere.)

Despite running a church for Saradomin, Father Aleck is no help at all, but the Sage of Lumbridge mentioned that a single devotee of Saradomin hangs around the ruined battlefield, so westward ho!

Well, the Saradomin disciple has cool armour and even cooler cutscenes, but nothing more concrete about following his god, so my search continues over to Draynor.

And in front of the dyeing witch is an Emisasary of Sliske. That is really the title that shows up when you hover over the character: Relomia, Emissary of Sliske. And she is the person trying to get worshipers for her patron, in this case the god of darkness and shadows. Sounds interesting, but probably not a match with Tidwin. He's a bit of a stuck-up boy scout, all light and happiness, so the search continues.

Over in Port Sarim, I met Holstein, Emissary of the Godless. citizens of Gielinor that want no interference from the gods. Seeing the crater in Lumbridge, I understand the appeal of not having omnipowerful beings clashing on this world. Not quite ready to declare allegiance, but this is interesting.

Continuing south through Sarim, there's the prison. I know some of the inmates are important for quests, so I wander in for nostalgia's sake. I'm really glad I did, because Prison Pete is there. I can't tell you how many times Prison Pete and I burst balloon animals to collect the keys that would free us from Evil Bob, the cat. I'm guessing if Prison Pete is safely in prison in Port Sarim, Evil Bob's reign of random terror is at an end.

Good thing I stopped by, because Endwyr, the Emissary of Seren, is out among the willows.  Seren is the Crystal Lady, the first elf to visit Gielinor and the guide that brought the other elves here.  She wants to avoid conflicts like the God Wars, shielding her people and letting them enjoy lives of peace and fulfillment. I'm really becoming a fan of "no gods mucking up the place" campaigns, so I guess Seren goes into the 'maybe' column as well.

Just because I'm closeby, I run down the the solitary peninsula. The blurite caves are still there, and the ice knights are still aggresive and dangerous. Elsewhere on the beach, things are pretty much like I remember them, still and calm.

Back up the coast, kill some hobgoblins, visit Taverly and Buthorpe, but still no emissaries. Moving over to Edgeville, I revisit Goldark, the Emissary of Zamorak. With bald head and pale skin, he looks sufficiently creepy in a stalky eunuch kind of way. Heading south, I bet the barbarians have a god - maybe the Gunnarr or whoever they're always yelling about.

No barbarian emissary, coming into Varrock to bank stuff, there's an emissary symbol on the map south of the bank, guy with a purple glowy staff. Saron, Emissary of Zaros. Zaros is the Empty God, the god of fate and control. Apparently he was betrayed and killed or something, but still watches over us. His plans are unknowable, but definitely do NOT include endless wars or petty revenge. That's like having to declare that you're not a dingo - the fact that you felt you had to say it just makes people suspicious. I'll put Zaros on the "Don't-call-us-we'll-call-you" list.

Nobody else shows up emissarywise in Varrock, so I'm off to Falador, the other major city, to search for emissiraies. Rather than teleport, I'm walking to see if the dwarves have a god of gold or commerce or something. I'll explore the campgrounds, but not going underground. (Metagaming here: no other emissary has shown up underground yet.)

No dwarf god, so I get into Falador without incident. A guy in the park north of the bank turns out to be Julienne, Emissary of Saradomin. He's got the usual spiel: power, good, order, light, blah, blah. I'm probably going with Saradomin because I'm a kind-hearted soul. I won't steal kills or ore rocks, even if I know I'd probably come out on top, because doping either of those robs the player of both items and XP, wasting their time and making the gaming experience less enjoyable.  Additionally, I hate scammers and reported frequently in the early days. Now that there are extra safeguards on trading, Jagex isn't as worried about scamming ruining the game as it once could. (I'm stopping a long aside about scamming here, but I'll devote more time later, probably.)

While I'm here, I'll wrap up with some mining. In the bank, grab a mining urn and go visit the dwarves. I'm up to level 74 mining, but I need to restock on urns soon. Sounds like a good excuse to go south to the crafters guild.

Wrapping up at 12:08 PM, it's been a full morning of wandering, exploring, adventuring and trading. Current XP is at 985,216 and I've collected 117,387 gold pieces so far today.

And for those readers of my generation where the song is now stuck in your head, I apologise.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Catching up

Just catching up on some administrative items:

Last post was from Friday night, not Saturday morning.  I'd written it then but was tired enough to leave it in the draft box until I found it this morning.

I did play some on Saturday morning, selling monk robes, runecrafting and other random stuff. Current XP at 915,681 and 219,589 coins collected through different sales.

So what have I been doing while writing this post?

Nothing strenuous. Spent twenty minutes following Chassi the Scrumptious based on a promise of a two billion gp drop party.  We started at GE, meandered through Varrock, strolled past the cows on the east bank of the Lum River, over to the Zamorak crater, then back up through Draynor, then Port Sarim, down to the grassy penninsula, now along the west wall of Falador, and now Taverly. Everyone in the party wants to convince the others that it's a scam and they should leave, so there will be fewer people if the drop party turns out to be legit.

Turns out Chassi bailed - no free billions to be had.  But I did grab six gold bars from the next drop party, so not a total loss. And later tonight I'll be mining coal with the drawves.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Runecrafting Redux

After a long day, it is now 5:49, so time for some diversion.

Today's goal is to get some runecrafting in. Since I logged at Varrock, probably the easiest will be earth runes. I remember it's outside the east gate of Varrock, just not sure if the altar is to the north or south once you reach the road.

I think I should travel north and yes, my memory is correct. The altar hasn't moved, still behind the yew tree that I can chop on the way back to Varrock. (Crafting earth runes seems logical since I've only used that rune to activate mining urns and haven't used any others recently.)

Crafting done, but a wizard is camped out. Taking notes it turns out. Researching if the rune altars are gradually losing energy. Okay, if we can't craft runes, how will Runescape stay the same without runes to cast spells? I've already noticed the damage spells changed to no longer require chaos or death runes. If runes go away altogether, will the game's name change to just "Scape"?

Well, I can go on a quest to ask the wizard theorist and get teleported right there. Tallyho!

Is this the top of the wizards tower south of Draynor? Seems much more elaborate than I remember. I don't think you could get on the roof of that wizard's tower.

Finix is one of the characters with recorded dialog and has a voice. Although is he supposed to sound like Harry Potter?

Okay, he says we can still make runes from siphoning rune energy. He also sells wicked robes and essence pouches for POINTS? I have no points and no idea where/how to get some! (Then again, I don't need another costume filling my bank.) I'm getting confused on all the different exchange media within the game, some cost real money, some come from specific activities.  Why can't I just throw gold pieces at everyone?

(Btw, why do I hear a seagull sound at top of Wizzy Tower? It's getting annoying and seems quite out of place. (We're talking John-Cleese-yelling-"Albatross" levels of annoying.))

I still haven't found Finix's quest, but I have teleported to the rune essence siphoning plane. You grab floating essence that looks strange, different from normal rune essence. Then you just walk up to mind storms or watter esslings(?) and suck rune energy out of those entities and into your strange looking essence, giving you strange looking runes. But my rune essence isn't getting used up.  I actually have a lot more than when I started.

Don't know if these runes cast spells, but you use them to travel via elemental bridges between the floating islands of this plane. So while I still haven't found Wizard Esslis or whomever to ask about Finix's research, I have found traveling clouds, iceberg bridges and climbable beanstalks

Quest or no quest, there is lots of free easy runecrafting xp to go around.  Oops, and to prove my point, I just made level 53 runcrafting!  I also have an alert that a wizard is calling for help, but i cant find him anywhere.

Aah, if you siphon a feature like a pools of water or storm funnel, you use up the odd looking essence.  If you siphon from an essling creature (killing it?) you get odd rune essence from its drained cadaver.

Okay, these aren't runes you can take back to Gielinor.  Finix turns whatever you've created into points that I presume are spent at his store to get stuff.  Will follow up later.

I gave up looking for the hapless wizard and teleported out, but it turns out that I cannot find ANYONE no matter where I look. Returning to tower again I cannot find Elriss, although I find Arianne at the front door and she needs help with a vortex disrupting the library.  So I have a new quest from here.

Goodie! Part of solving this quest is playing an old style rune spell.("old style" - hmph! That's the style I'm familiar with.) on a pipe organ. (After playing the official quest tune, I played both "Mary had a little lamb" and "Heart and Soul" - the latter of which should have definitely gotten me kicked our of tower by the librarian.)

Anyhow, I've found a key, so going outside with Arianne, we break into the OLD portion of the Wizard's Tower. I learn that I should be a Saradomim mage (blue), defile a statue, yet never deal with the eventual doublecross that never happens. (C'mon, Arianna, you've consorted with demons, step up your game!)

Anyhow, now I have another hat and weapon to store, so I return to GE with materials for a divine bronze rock.  Giving a shout that I'm going to drop the puppy, myself and a few others mine from the rock. I sell off the ore and call it a night at 8:46, having collected 14,346 coin and brought my current XP up to 879,625.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

Dahling, you look FABulous!

Start time: 7:24 PM

Collecting some sales left overnight in GE, I also pull out my new Imphide armor to sell. Out of boredom, I slew an imp one of my first days back and found that it dropped some loot called "imphide" which both implied that I could craft items out of the hide AND gave me a word to add to loophole and shepherd where the ph doesn't sound like gh...err, I mean f.

Anyhow, after some crafty experimentation, I determined that yes, you can make a whole suit of red (burgundy?) armour with yellow trim. Snazzy looking, with a choice of weapons too. So I banked the whole set.

That's right. I squandered a half dozen premium bank slots for armour because it looked neat. Not powerful or rare or valuable, just neat. And I've filled much of my bank with costumes. I loved getting costumes from the different random events, like the frogs or the mime theatre or the demonic drill sergeant. The last time I died, I was wandering Wildy while dressed in full camo. I also lost over 100K runes and a bunch of gold, but it was losing the clothes that hurt me the most, because I enjoyed having non-functional costumes. (Definitely non-functional - how did Wilderness monsters spot me wearing camouflage?) I had not recovered a complete set of camo by the time I lapsed playing years ago.

So I was overjoyed albeit a little disappointed to discover that Thessalia in Varrock sells a full line of event costumes, presumably because the events that gave out clothes might be gone now. I immediately spent the necessary gold to complete every costume from amphibian to zombie.

I also discovered last night that spider silk could be used in crafting another set of amour, this time a purple and silver outfit. But before I tried cramming that into my bank, I revisited the idea of having too many costume pieces in my bank. So I've sold the spider silk and imphide clothing.  After all, I can always make more.

Anyhow, I've spent this time mining rune essence in preparation of some runecrafting tomorrow or maybe this weekend. Just jogging from the Varrock East Bank (VEB?) to Aubry's shop and back again. I've discovered that the Towne Crier's bell is a melancholy sound, but probably only to me. I'll explain one day, but not just now.

So as of 8:02 I'm wrapping up. (Early day tomorrow!) No levels gained tonight, but final XP comes to 865,694 with 3,139 gold collected from various activities.

Good hunting!
~ Tidwin ~

A delightful day in Draynor

Starting time: 8:03PM

Leaving GE, I teleport to Draynor. I have a couple of books left over from the Ashdale quest, and relying on my memory, I think the old guy with the party hat checks your pack for quest stuff you no longer need. Plus, I can get some willow logs to test the bonfire duration question as well as get wisp energy for a magic mining rock.

Good news, I was right about the old guy. Even better, he can check for items that Diango can replace. Unfortunately, he can't tell if the two items I hold are useful anymore. They probably aren't, but I'll verify that later somehow.

So a little WC and a little wisp harvesting later, I'm back at the GE. Before selling the willow logs, I test my theory. Turns out, willow logs in a bonfire do boost for eighteen minutes, so the progression seems to be six minutes per wood category.

I still need to collect twenty copper ore for the magic rock, but ennui is beginning to set in. (Today was a long day at work.) Nonetheless, since I can only make one magic rock a day, I better get it made. So another teleport to Lumbridge for copper ore, then back to Varrock. I want to place the magic rock in the GE, so others can mine it too.

So I shouldn't have worried: both quest items can be gotten from Gurdik in Taverly should I ever need them back. Goodbye!

Anyhow, the ore collected, I get a few helpers at GE mining the magic rock. Tomorrow I think I'll go runecrafting. Plus, I can talk about costumes, since I know I'll want to get the spiders near Lumbridge for some silk.

Wrapping up at 9:59, XP total is now 862,740 with 41,537 gold collected from various sales.

Good hunting!
~Tidwin~

An inauspicious return to Gielinor

Over three years ago, I stopped playing Runescape. Nothing really caused me to stop playing, I just gradually got bored.  If any specific cause existed, it would be the fact that Facebook games were shinier and easier to play.  Even there, I would tend to play fantasy themed games.  I love a good adventure in either electronic or tabletop venues, hence my preference swords and sorcery.

Regardless, I'd grown tired of dealing with Facebook's craziness, so I stopped playing games there. With my copious free time, I've now returned to Runescape.  Luckily, my name hasn't been taken by another player during my absence, so I'm still the same Tidwin that I've always been.

Back in the day, I tended to focus on skills instead of combat, taking great pleasure in making armor, weapons, magic items and cuisine.  The only f2p quest I had not completed was Dragon Slayer. (I've always been f2p, never a member.)  I could mine adamant but still only work in mithril.  I could fish, cook and craft just about anything available to free players, with a bank full of gems, ore, and lobsters.  And costumes - but more on that another time.

I've been back for a week now, and the changes that I've noticed are interesting and for the most part beneficial.  Some of the new features I've noticed:

• For a skiller like me, the toolbelt is an incredible idea.  But for some reason when I first logged back in and discovered that I had a toolbelt to begin with, I was missing a tiara mould out of the set of tools.  Spade, chisel, knife, everything else already loaded.  Just no tiara mould for some unknown reason.
• New combat abilities and actions. Not sure if I like the new complexity, but I remember how boring combat used to be, just waiting to see if you needed to eat or checking when your Prayer points were gone.
• There's a gnome who offers challenges, attitude and baby trolls.  I have a pet one following me around named Silk.  I'll explain another time.
• Another neat item I've picked up: the five-year Veteran cape.
• Several stats or items have changed by at least an order of magnitude: the cornucopia used to heal fourteen hit points, but now it heals a thousand.
• Prayer points are now ten times your Prayer level, so I have 520 total Prayer points.
• An even bigger jump: health is now one hundred times Constitution! (Hence the change in the cornucopia.)
• And when running, my stamina never seems to run out. Travelling around Gielinor in the past, it felt like I never had enough running endurance and ended up walking everywhere, VERY slowly.  Maybe it's a change in calculations or just the effect of having the lodestone system available to players.  ("In my day, we walked to Varrock, uphill, both ways, and we LIKED it that way.")

Also, there are new quests, like Shadow over Ashdale, which I've already completed. Other quests have vanished, like Romeo & Juliet.  So it looks like I'll be completing a few more quests before I'm off hunting a dragon! (I've always planned for Dragon Slayer to be my final f2p quest, at which point I'd consider becoming a member.)

Anyhow, enough chat. Let's kill some monsters!

PLAY RECAP: start playing at 6:38PM with 812,580 total XP

Heading from GE to nearby locked shed, I plan to fight hill giants underground.  I can defeat them fairly easily without losing health too quickly, and the limpwurt roots are good money.  Random sapphires and emeralds are also a bonus, since I can craft them with the chisel on my toolbelt.

While down there I quickly gain a level of Defense.  At 49, I'm almost able to wear rune armor.  Once, of course, I kill a dragon.

I fill up rapidly on roots and return to GE and sell them for about 15K.  Cries of "Rewarding kindness" and "Need 1M to get bonds - can pay back more later" echo across the GE, the newest ways of separating the gullible from their gold, I suppose.

I'm not planning on playing much tonight, but I go to the monastery near the Wilderness to get bonus prayer and also grab monk robes to sell on the GE.  I get 540/520 Prayer to help boost healing when fighting, and return to the GE with ten sets of monk outfits to sell. I get 19K for the tops, and 10K for the bottoms, before chopping eight more oak logs for a bonfire near the giants to boost health.  I spy a line of ashes on the ground and think smugly how a bonfire takes less space and offers more XP.  (Also, regular logs give six minutes of boosted health, but oak logs provide a twelve minute buff.  Do higher trees offer even longer boosts?)

Running back to the locked shed, I pass by players scavenging rune 2H swords that start appearing on the ground.  I watch for a few seconds after the first three get picked up, but no more appear, so the vultures (myself included) scatter.  (Don't knock free stuff - I've gotten free rune armor and weapons just for being in the right place at the right time. (That's often the GE at 3AM, but I digress.))

Heading underground, I go to the zombie room to pick up a key before starting the oak bonfire.  (I always like getting brass keys so I can always be certain of getting back into this dungeon.)  In the hill giants' room, the place has become fairly crowded.  A ranger with adamant arrows, several mages, even a fighter with rune armor and a chef's hat for some reason. I only get to fight one giant at a time, meaning my adrenaline never builds to 100%.  Nonetheless, after dispatching a dozen foes, my Attack climbs to level 49, nearly letting me wield rune axes and picks instead of carrying them in my backpack.  Soon after that, my Prayer also levels up to 53.  In all, a good night for leveling up my combat skills.

But it's not a good night for the giants dropping more roots.  Body talismans, steel arrows and runes galore, but no limpwurt roots.  Nonetheless, I keep chugging along.  I chat briefly with Big Fat D about weapons and skill levels in between hill giants, but by and large everyone down here is quietly grinding away for XP, myself included.  Gradually I get a few more roots as my salmon supplies dwindle.  And now solitary rune arrows from a new archer begin to appear on the ground.

Finally, I get to use my full adrenaline move, dropping a giant in one stroke as I get an uncut emerald drop and enough XP for level 49 Strength.  (You can probably guess I'm not a "pure" combat anything.)  My food supplies exhausted, I head to the surface a few giants later.

I get over 10k for the roots, but only 900 for the body talismans. The brass keys and various runes all go into the bank, freeing up space for more monk clothes when I replenish Prayer points.  (The instant I get the bonfire boost to health, I turn on Rapid Heal, and it stays on until I'm out of Prayer.) I fill the cornucopia with five herrings before teleporting to Edgeville and the monastery.  Upstairs, I visit the altar before collecting monk outfits.  Brimming with divinity, I head back to GE, selling the robe tops (12k) and bottoms (7k) before calling it a night at 9:33PM.

The fruit of this evening's labors: total XP advanced to 849,747, and I banked 78,292 gold pieces.

Good hunting!  See you tomorrow!
 ~ Tidwin ~